In a surprising turn of events, Elon Musk has decided to drop his lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman. The lawsuit, which accused the company of deviating from its not-for-profit and open-source principles, was filed by Musk and his attorneys but has now been dismissed without prejudice, leaving room for potential re-filing in the future.
The reasons behind Musk’s decision to drop the lawsuit remain undisclosed. The move came just before the scheduled hearing for OpenAI’s bid for dismissal in the San Francisco Superior Court. Musk had initially sought a court order to compel OpenAI, a company he co-founded, to make its research and technology accessible to the public. He also aimed to prevent the company from benefiting financially from major investor Microsoft through its products, including GPT-4.
OpenAI’s attorneys countered Musk’s claims, stating that he was driven by a desire to replicate the remarkable technological advancements achieved by the company. They also argued that the lawsuit was based on incoherent claims and served as a means for Musk to advance his own AI interests through his company xAI.
This development marks the latest episode in an ongoing feud between Musk and OpenAI, as well as its CEO Sam Altman. Musk has criticized the company for straying from its non-profit mission and allegedly programming its ChatGPT with a biased political agenda.
In response to the dispute, Musk founded xAI last year and subsequently launched its first product, the Grok language model. In March, xAI open-sourced Grok, despite Musk’s previous criticisms of OpenAI’s commitment to openness. In April, xAI introduced its first visual processing model, Grok 1.5v.
Although Musk denied reports of xAI raising $6 billion in capital earlier this year, he continued to voice concerns about OpenAI’s profit-driven structure. However, xAI recently announced that it had indeed secured $6 billion in Series B funding.
The dropping of the lawsuit adds another twist to the ongoing saga between Musk and OpenAI. The motivations behind Musk’s decision remain unclear, leaving room for speculation about the future of his relationship with the company he co-founded.